Quality Deer Management

...we had one in the freezer and dropped a second when these two just turned to see where the shot came from. We could have taken a third, but two is enough for us so we just took a picture...

All are welcome to harvest as many doe as they want.

Quality Deer Management on non-contiguous lease land is a futile effort.

Any attempt on our part for quality deer management would simply be useless effort. Our approach is by the very nature of our self guided hunter largely a trophy deer hunter organization. The self guided hunter is above the public lands hunter mentality of having to get a buck before anyone else. That combined that we exist within a well know trophy whitetail region of Iowa, Kansas and Missouri deer hunters come with a trophy mind set. Most are not willing to suffer the wrath of ridicule for shooting a small buck.

First, on trophy deer, while we do not have rack size prohibitions, we do encourage that all deer hunters harvest only racks that are larger than what they previously have harvested. Once a hunter reaches the 140 class deer then successive trophies of this magnitude are acceptable. This policy allows the deer hunter the ability to start his children hunting with success on the easier to obtain smaller racks and build up. The non-resident coming from areas were lower scoring racks are truly trophy deer is free to start his central mid-west hunting career at his own selected entry point and move on up from there as well.

Doe harvest is of special concern to us and is highly encouraged. We do have landowners that request additional deer hunters to help thin the doe population. For the hunter wanting to fill a freezer with venison his is encouraged to hunt the doe only seasons as much as he can.

We also list every meat processing plant we are aware of that supports the hunters for the hungry program on the same list as our lodging. Deer hunters are encouraged to harvest doe and employ this worth while program.

In spite of our deer hunting approach being for the enjoyment of the hunt the reality is that most self guided deer hunters and especially those that travel to deer hunt are trophy deer hunters. In any case of any of our hunters be they primarily deer hunters or not we encourage all that want to feed themselves or their dogs throughout the year to do so with doe meat.

Hunter Verifiable Deer Statistics

Opening below are some statistics on central mid-west Whitetail Deer taken as a snap shot of six years worth of data. As in all statistics, the numbers by themselves have little meaning without the conditions they were collected also ascribed to the data. Those conditions were simply placement of the camera on various leases at likely crossing points.

All we are attempting to do with these deer camera statistics is provide yet one more snapshot into the various aspects of whitetail behavior. And of course, the typical declaimer is that this data should not be accepted as statistical potential accuracy for any future self guided deer hunter experience.

This data is based on deer scouting camera photographs over a variety of natural terrain. No deer food plot, feeder or chemical attractants were employed.

Some deer hunters have interpreted this statistic as demonstrating the un-pressured nature of our whitetail deer. It is commonly accepted that the more pressure deer receive the more nocturnal their activity. In this case we demonstrate an overall average of greater day to night deer activity.

Our surveys have shown this deer behavior data point to be highly circumstantial. A dramatic distinction has surfaced between inactive and active farm daylight deer activity.

Inactive farms of 160 acres and larger have accounted for up to 92% daylight deer activity. An inactive farm is one that may be enrolled into the CRP program or one that only sees active farming during CRP maintenance periods and is otherwise unattended.

Active farms have demonstrated the converse with as little as 13% daylight deer movement. An active farm may have cattle on portions of it in addition to wildlife areas or other activity that results in a more frequent appearance of humans seemingly suppressing deer activity.

Nothing more than an indicator of the number of buck compared to doe deer ratio.

This count is of only comparing deer with visible antlers. Button bucks are subsumed in the doe count for lack of picture resolution.

We have our cameras out starting in June and an early summer rack is nothing to read as a trophy deer, or not. And, of course, there is no implied guarantee that this percentage of trophy whitetail deer will be what every deer hunter will find. This deer statistic is offered only in a simple attempt to provide a more detailed and obviously incomplete picture of the central mid-west whitetail deer.

Our most useful deer scouting and hunting statistic is this one that shows if you want to find trophy class whitetail deer you must put your boots on the ground and scout.

This statistic is all the more impressive when it is realized the game cameras are out in the field 24/7 and our physical scouting covers far fewer hours and days. Finding a trophy class whitetail deer is not your challenge. Putting that deer in your truck is the issue.

All deer scouting data on these charts is cumulative. We have ranged between 1 and a maximum of 4 operational scouting cameras at any one time. As deer numbers continued to be additive the variance from year to year becomes less pronounced and a more statistical sound baseline is developed. We ceased tracking the camera statistics when deer observations variance flattened.

John,
Just wanted to send an update from my Midwest hunt. Yet again I must commend you and the MAHA Staff for doing such an exceptional job. I am so glad that I found this organization. I had more success this year on my [location deleted] bow hunt. I hunted in [location deleted] on a piece of property that is fantastic. It is up for sale, unfortunately, and that is bad news. Nonetheless, it was an awesome hunt. As usual the big ones would just not cooperate. I saw a monster 5 x 5 almost every day that I hunted. I just could not get into position for a shot. I saw a lot of big 4 x 4's and almost got an awesome one on the first day of the hunt. On day six or seven, cant remember, this 4 x 4 came into my shooting lane at 32 yards. It was 330 PM and it was snowing pretty hard. It made for a pretty cool hunt.

Thanks, again for what you guys do. I truly get excited every year knowing that I have the ability to go out to the midwest and tackle those big deer. Enclosed are some pics of my [location deleted] bow kill. They are a little dark but they aren't to bad.
Happy Holidays, John